GOP fortunes: From bad to worse in Calif.

11/8/12 9:28 AM EST

After a rough election night for Republicans in the nation’s most populous state, the Los Angeles Times sets the scene in California for the next two years:

Gov. Jerry Brown and his fellow Democrats are on the cusp of a coveted supermajority in both the Assembly and Senate, giving them the rare power to raise taxes without any Republican support.

No single party has held such a supermajority in Sacramento since 1933.

To cement the dual two-thirds majorities when the Legislature gets down to business next year, Democrats must hold onto one of two Senate seats to be vacated and a few Assembly seats won in tight races. The Senate seats will be filled in special elections expected in March.

The supermajorities would mark a dramatic shift in Sacramento's balance of power, where GOP legislators have aggressively used their ability to block state budget plans and prevent revenue increases to scale back the scope of state government.

Coupled with the approval of Brown's tax plan, Proposition 30, the Democrats now have not only the power but also the money to break free of the deficit that has paralyzed state government for years.

Just when it looked like things couldn’t get any worse for Republicans in California, it appears they did. And at the congressional level, there are still three uncalled House races where GOP incumbents are trailing their Democratic challengers with 100 percent of the votes in.

California Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro issued this statement Wednesday in response to the election results, which included a big win for labor on a payroll deduction ballot measure.

Yesterday, California moved farther to the Left with a big push from public employee unions. There can be little doubt now that California public employee unions are, by far, the most powerful political force in this state. However, that comes at a heavy price for struggling Californians...

In a nutshell, "the state is run for the very rich, the very poor and the public employees.' "In my view, Californians will now get to see the plain results of the Democrat-controlled policies both nationally and here at home as the California economy undoubtedly continues to struggle if not get worse under those policies.

In the meantime, it will be up to Republicans to continue to reach out to more voters and make the case that we need to bring balance to our policies in California. This task has been made more daunting but ever more necessary.

The presidential exit polls paint an especially grim picture that suggests the state won't be competitive in any way for a long time. Obama won every income group, every education group, big and small cities, suburbs and independents.

While Mitt Romney carried the white vote with 53 percent, Obama won other race and ethnicity groups by an even wider margin than nationally: 96 percent among black voters, 72 percent among Hispanics, 79 percent among Asians.